


The Raptor Girl

by SR1824



Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Jurassic Park Series - Michael Crichton, Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Dinosaurs, F/M, Gen, Owen and claire freindship, Raptor Training, Work, dad! alan grant, sr1824
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2018-11-14 19:44:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11214987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SR1824/pseuds/SR1824
Summary: Amber Grant, is the daughter of the renowned Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Veronica Hayden-Grant. Her life is changed when she gets the offer to join the esteemed dinosaur park Jurassic World. But where there are dinosaurs, there is disaster. Amber is a first-hand experiencer of this. See what happens to amber when she meets Owen, her annoying but hot, all american partner, Claire, the extreme neat freak and organising park operations superviser and of course, lets not forget her team of 4 velociraptors.[this is pre-Jurassic world. It will go on till Jurassic world, and hopefully will continue onwards.]P.s- I DO NOT OWN JURASSIC PARK, JURRASSIC WORLD, OR ANY RELATED MEDIA. SPIELBERG, AUTHOR, OR ANYONE ELSE, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PLEASE DON'T SUE ME.





	1. The offer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amber meets Masrani who wants to hire her.

**So guys, I'm rewriting this story, like I said, I'm excited to see how this goes. So Amber will be a little different now, and I'll take things slow. Please tell me what you think of It!**

* * *

"Dad, are you finishing up or what?" I asked my father, Alan Grant. He likes to analyze the fossils manually, even though we already have computers to do that kind of stuff. I walk outside my tent, covering my nose and mouth with my scarf, to protect myself from the dust. In Colorado at our dig site, there is always dust.

"Yeah, coming sweetie-" he said, but I cut him off.

"You should really let the computers, you know," I tell him. "They aren't here to occupy space."

"I know that, but just-"

"Dad, we've been using these things even before I was born. You've gotta trust them."

"Yeah, but-"

"C'mon, you shouldn't be in the sun." I dragged him inside the tent.

"Drink this," I said as I handed him a glass of water. "You look dehydrated."

He takes the glass and drinks it up. "I'm supposed to be your father sweetheart," he chuckles.

"Yeah, well, what can we do? Mom's outside right now, lecturing a bunch of students. That leaves both me and Sarah. She's still in grade school dad. Someone's going to have to take care of you."

All of a sudden, the dust outside starts swirling around and covering up all the work we've done in the past few weeks. I run out of the tent screaming.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? You're spreading the dust all around, that took us weeks to dig!" I yell out, but I don't really think they heard me because my voice was drowned out by the helicopter blades. It lands on the sand, just missing our dig site.

The engines stop, and a man decked in a very fancy white suit comes out.

"Ah, Hello Ms. Grant! What a delight to meet you!" he says as he grabs my hand and shakes it. I wipe off the dust from my hands.

"Excuse me sir, but tourists are not allowed here, and you've covered up almost half of our work! So I suggest you-"

"Oh, terribly sorry about that, uh, my landing skills aren't very good," He says sheepishly

"Who're you talking to Amber?" my dad calls out behind me, emerging from the tent. "Oh no. no, no, no."

"Ah! Mr. Grant! I wish to speak to the both of you."

"And you are?" my dad asks, waving his arms around.

"I'm Simon Masrani, CEO of Masrani Global Corporation. I've also acquired InGen a few years ago and-"

"Okay, hold on. Do you mean InGEn as in the Jurassic Park InGen?" I interrupt him.

"Yes. That one indeed, but let's not dwell in the past. I've been able to acquire the island, and we've started anew. I'm sure you've heard of Jurassic World."

"Yes. When will you understand that the dinosaurs were wiped out for a reason? Keeping them enclosed no matter how isolated; it's not safe for any one," My dad adds. I agree with you dad.

"Don't worry about that, Mr. Grant, we've used state-of-the-art technology, and I can personally assure you that this is much more safer than before."

"Let's get straight to the point," I start. "You've definitely not come for some advertising programme here, that's for sure. So what is it that you want?" I ask him, folding my hands.

"Very perceptive of you, Ms. Grant. We want you."

"Um.., You want me?" I nervously ask. No one has ever asked for me specifically before, it was always Alan Grant this, and Alan Grant that. I had to be sure. Everyone knows about the Jurassic Park incident; that's practically made him a celebrity.

Dad stands up a little straighter, now clearly interested.

"Yes," Masrani confirms. "We want you to work for us."

"And what makes you think I'll accept?"

"We've got an offer you simply can't resist."

"And that is?"

"Your dig will be fully funded by InGen; which will give you publicity as well," he said, looking directly in my father's eyes. Money. That is the one thing that we do not possess. Most of it is always spent on equipment, and the investors immediately pulled out because of the, ah, 'live specimens' introduced.

"As for you, Ms. Grant, you'll be paid about 1000$ a month excluding taxes, a bungalow, a company-issued vehicle, a fully paid sick leave-"

"I'm in." I state.

"Please join us, we really- wait what?" he looks at me a bit puzzled.

"I accept." I hold out my hand for him to shake.

Dad steps in. "We'll need to discuss a few things, can you wait?"

"Sure." He claps his hand, and a man comes in with a chair and a cold glass of lemonade. "Take all the time you need. I'll just stay here." He sits down on the chair and reads a newspaper. Sure must be nice being rich.

We walk inside the tent.

Dad wastes no time.

"WHY DID YOU ACCEPT?" he kind of shouts.

"Dad! The pay! We need to continue our research, don't we? You do want the Paleontological Society Medal, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but- That's beside the point? You do know what happened the last time we went, don't you?" he looks at the side of my neck. I was 3 years old when I was attacked by a velociraptor. What an irresponsible parent, you'd think. But like I said again, money was pretty tight, and we couldn't afford a baby-sitter for who-knows-how-many-days.

So, I tagged along. The rescue mission went fairly okay, if you can call going on a monster-infested island okay, until Billy stole the raptor eggs. That was when things went bad. Really, really bad. Long story short, they attacked, but dad managed to give the eggs back and save us. But all battles leave scars, and this one was no less. The scar on my neck went down from the back of my right ear to the end of my neck. I was heavily traumatized, but I managed to recover.

"Yes dad, it happened to me, of course I remember. But we need the funds. Without them, we'd have to close up the entire facility, and think. What would happen to Billy? Ella? Richard? Our team?" I try to convince him.

He thinks. "You're right. But this is your choice. I'd give up my research for you to be safe."

"I know that dad," I say as I pull him in a hug.

"Remember that I'm not allowing you to go." he held my shoulders, and kissed my forehead.

"I'm an adult, dad. I can take care of myself. Besides, you love the park, so much!"

"Shut up!" he says as he playfully tousled my hair.

"So I'm taking it as a yes?"

"If you want to, but I'm not happy with this. What if you meet a boy?"

"Oh my gosh, dad!"

"I wonder how Veronica is going to react to this." He awkwardly changes the subject. Dad was always a little overprotective when it came to boys.

"Let's hope not as bad as you do." I shoot back.

I walk out the tent.

Masrani gets up. "Ah Ms. Grant! So what do you say?"

"I accept." He looks very happy. "With one condition." His face drops.

"And that is?" he looks questioningly.

"I choose when I leave."

He relaxes. "Sure. We'll give you a six-month contract for now. You can extend it whenever you want."

"That's done then."

We shake hands.

"I'll look forward to seeing you on the park."

"As will I." I add.

Just as he is about to leave, I ask him, "What will I be working on?"

He smirks. "You'll find out soon, Grant. We'll e-mail you the contract by this evening or tomorrow."

"Great," I said as I thought to myself. What kind of mess had I gotten into?

Sarah comes by, soon enough, and when she finds out, her expressions were more like,

"That's soo not fair!"

I laugh. "You know what, Sarah? You can come visit anytime you want."

"But you're going only for a few months!"

My sister was the complete opposite of my parents. She always got excited whenever anyone even mentioned Jurassic Park. She wasn't that interested in paleontology as I was, but she was a great writer. I hoped that she'd get published soon.

"So," I continue. "Who's the boyfriend?"

"How did you figure that out?" she looked at me shocked.

I laugh. "You just told me."

She scrunches up her face into a mean expression, but fails. "Not cool Amber, not cool."

"Who is he?" I ask her

Her face turns red like a beetroot. "Go on," I tease her.

"Don't tell this to mom-"

"Don't tell mom what?" my mother asks as she enters the house.

"Um… let's just say that I'm moving."

You owe me big time Sarah. She mouths thank you.

My mother gets a bit of a shock, though. She drops her coat. "YOU WHAT?"

"You'll need to sit down." I pull out a chair for her

"Simon Masrani, the new CEO of InGen paid a visit."

"And? I'm not sure how that involves you moving?" she has a very surprised look on her face.

"Listen!" I shout frustrated. "He said he wanted me to work for him."

"Oh no. NO. No. my daughter is not going to be a personal-"

I sigh. My mom always jumps to quick conclusions.

"No mom. I'm going to be working as a researcher."

"Thank god- Where exactly are you going?" she crosses her hands and stands in a very intimidating position.

"Jurassicworld," I mumble out.

"Where?" she said raises her eyebrows. The expression that follows; it was scary. She is the scariest woman I've had to deal with. Her gray eyes look like they could see right inside your soul.

Gathering whatever amount of courage left in me, I say "Jurassic World." And then I knew I was doomed.

She starts yelling at me telling me that it was very dangerous, and that she thought I had some common sense left in me, and how could I betray her, and on and on.

Dad walks in and grabs her shoulders, and she thankfully stops.

"I told her the exact same thing, Vera; but she went out and told the guy she accepted."

"Mom, we really need the money! and trust me on this one, the new place is safe! Have you heard of one incident since it opened?"

"Well no, but that doesn't mean-"

"Relax mom. It'd be a great experience for me. Besides, I'm only going for 6 months at first."

"Wait, what?" Dad looks at me, surprised.

"Yes. I've got to stay there only for 6 months. Then if I wish, I can extend the contract. The pay I'm getting is a good $10000 per month. I'll be able to make $60000 in 6 months! And let's not forget that I'm getting a fantastic house, a car, a sick leave-"

"You had me on sick leave. Is it fully paid?"

"Of course it is."

"Did Alan try to talk you out of it?" she asks.

I respect that woman. She could read your mind.

"What, can you read minds now or something?" Dad says to her, completely bewildered.

"No honey, only you would be so stupid as to stop her."

This time dad raises his eyebrows. "Really?"

It was time for me to intervene.

"Cut it out, guys. He's mailing me the contract. If all goes well, I'll be moving out the next week."

They look at me shocked. "What! The next week! You can't be serious!"

"I'm very serious. Maybe they want me to start working as soon as possible?"

"But why would they want to do that?"

"I don't know."

Dad hunched his shoulder, in defeat. "Fine, I'll go make myself some coffee."

I sigh and go back to my tent. If I wanted to leave next week, I should start packing.


	2. The Journey- part 1

_A week later._

I was running around frantically searching for my missing socks. I had an entire week to prepare, but somehow I ended up procrastinating, and I’m literally stuffing everything I can find in my bag.

Sarah comes out holding a gray sock.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” she asks.

“Oh yes,” I cry out in relief. “There it is.” I snatch the sock from her grasp and go back to the tent. I somehow manage to stuff everything in 5 bags, and then I haul them to the car.

I hope I have everything I need. Dad’s going to drive me to the airport, from where I have to catch a plane to get to Miami, from where I’ll be cruising to Isla Nublar.

“Need a hand with that?” a warm voice asks.

“No, I can handle it,” I say, not even caring to look behind me to see who it was.

“Moving already, and not even saying goodbye to your best friend?”

I freeze at that instant and turn around. It was Charlie.

I throw down the bag in my hand and hug him. He hugs me back. It had been a couple of years since I last saw him, and it was great to see him again.

“How’s my favorite doctor doing?” I ask him playfully.

He had chosen to pursue a career in medicine, and had graduated by now. Charlie was my best friend since we were 3. He’s the same age as I am, but he’s 2 months older and I he makes sure I never hear the end of it.

“Not bad, not bad. But what about you? You’re moving out and you didn’t even tell me?” he challenges me.

I sigh. “I just got the offer  a week ago. But what are you doing here?”

“Alan told me to drop you off. I was visiting mom, and just stopped by for a quick hello. Your dad absolutely hates machines, so I decided to help him there. “

“Well thanks.” I say as pack the final bag into the trunk, and close the door.

“Any time.”

He gets into the driver’s seat and starts his engine. I sit in the seat beside him.

“Bye honey,” dad waves from the dig.

“Don’t get into trouble, sis,” Sarah yells out.

I laugh at her. “Do I ever?”

 I’m missing them already. Mom’s away lecturing, so I’ll call her later.

The car drive was pretty uneventful. Charlie tells me about his new job at the hospital, and how he wants to open his own clinic someday.

“So, how’s aunt Ellie?”

“Well, she’s fine. It’s dad I worry about.”

“I can say the same for my father. It’s like he’s too stubborn too accept some help.”

“And how’s Lillith?”

“Lillith and I… we broke up. Things didn’t work out between us.”

“Oh,” I say awkwardly. We don’t talk for the rest of the ride. What am I supposed to say?

 The next time he even opens his mouth is when we reach the airport.

As he helps me unload my luggage from the car, he speaks, “Take care of yourself, Amber. You have a knack for getting into trouble. Without my help.”

“What can I do Charlie? Trouble must really, really like me. I always end up in there and you know that.”

He chuckles. “But the place where you’re going, you might just want to take it down a notch. You and dinosaurs don’t really have a good history.”

I shudder at the memory of the time my father took me to the remains of Jurassic park with the Kirby’s. I promised myself I would never go back. But here I am, already on my way to the new and improved Jurassic park- Jurassic World. Where I’m going, I’m going to need all the luck I can get.

“You can say that again.”

“I’m going to miss you Amber.” I can tell from the tone of his voice that he’s sad.

“Come here you big bowl of mush.” I open my arms and he embraces me.

“Be safe,” he adds as we break away. He goes back to the car and drives off.

I walk inside, and check in my bags. Then I get a coffee and plop myself on one of the waiting area chairs. Turns out my flight’s a little late.

For someone who’s supposed to spare no expense, this is pretty cheap.

When my flight finally does arrive, I almost cry out in happiness. I’ve lost 2 hours of travelling time! But lost time is made up for quality, I get first class seats.

Once I board the plane, I pack my carry-ons and settle down in my seat.

“Hello there,” the person near me greets me. She was a middle-aged woman probably in her late 30s. She smiles at me; her blue eyes crinkling.

“Hey,” I offer a hand for her to shake. She shakes it.

“Heading to Costa Rica?”

“Yep”

“Let me guess, Jurassic World?”

“Yessir I am going there”

“Oh.”

I think she probably wanted to speak some more, but the air-hostess starts making the announcements.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the Fasten Seat Belt sign. If you haven’t already done so, please stow your carry-on luggage underneath the seat in front of you or in an overhead bin. Please take your seat and fasten your seat belt. And also make sure your seat back and folding trays are in their full upright position,” The air hostess says.

_Here we go,_ I think as I buckle in my seat belt.

“If you are seated next to an emergency exit, please read carefully the special instructions card located by your seat. If you do not wish to perform the functions described in the event of an emergency, please ask a flight attendant to reseat you.”

“We remind you that this is a non-smoking flight. Smoking is prohibited on the entire aircraft, including the lavatories. Tampering with, disabling or destroying the lavatory smoke detectors is prohibited by law.”

“If you have any questions about our flight today, please don’t hesitate to ask one of our flight attendants. Thank you.”

Susan speaks to me after the announcements, as I read the information leaflet.

“My brother just went over there last week. Some weird training contract,” she says. “These people, they never learn when to stop.” She rolls her eyes. _Yes ma’am, I agree with you there._

“I’m going for a similar role over there as well.” I explain to her, breaking away from the sheet. _This brochure really can make anyone scared. So many emergency procedures, it’s almost intimidating. No wonder so many people hate air travel._

“Well that’s nice,” she says, and then opens her bag and takes out a book to read.

 And after that I turn on a movie and watch it till I nod off.

I was so deep in sleep that I didn’t even realize I slept until an air-hostess woke me up for dinner.

“Rough day hon?” she asks me in her sweet voice.

“It wasn’t _that bad,_ but it was a little rough.” I tell her, accepting the plate she gave me. By that time, the lady beside me had already finished her meal.

“Hey, nice to see you awake. I’m Susan.” she introduces herself.

‘I’m Amber Grant.” I introduce myself.

“Oh! You’re the daughter of Alan Grant! I knew I’d seen you somewhere!” she excitedly says, earning us a few stares. _Oh no,_ _Not this again._

The last time this happened, I was late to school by 3 hours.

I try to calm her down. “Shh ma’am, I really don’t want that kind of attention right now,” I whisper to her.

She looks a little disheartened, but then regains her composure. “Oh, sorry, it’s just that my son absolutely adores dinosaurs, and ever since my brother got a job at Jurassic World, my son is totally in love with the park.

“So, what’re you watching next?” I ask her, leaning into her screen a bit, trying to get a glimpse

“Ooh, this movie is amazing,” she tells me. “My son is a big fan of these series.”

If you’re ever stuck up in a plane with nothing to do, I suggest watching Captain America: The First Avenger. It was a pretty great movie; it had the action, the romance, the drama, everything you need a movie to be. Then we decided to watch another one.

We watch so many more until both of us are passed out on the seats. I think at some point the air-hostess must have turned off the screen, but I was in deep sleep by then.

The next morning, the pilot’s voice awakens me. I barely had 2 hours of sleep. That’s too bad. Susan is already awake beside me.

“Welcome to Miami International Airport. I hope you enjoy your stay in Florida.” He announces. I woke up just in time, it seemed.

“Nice meeting you Amber,” she says.

“You too Susan. I’d love to meet this brother of yours.”

She laughs. “Oh trust me you don’t.” then we exchange email addresses and promise to keep in teach.

I go over to luggage bay and sit down, waiting for my stuff to come.

Finally, my luggage starts arriving, and I barely manage to stack them on top of each other. Boy was this difficult. Struggling, I reach the gate and then realize that I have to hail a taxi. I went over to the taxi booth, but it turns out that there is not a single one available. There was a three hour waiting line. I had to get to the docks in two. Too bad.

So there I stood, in the hot scorching sun, waiting for anything remotely close to a yellow taxi come by. At least I have dad’s lucky hat to keep me company.

“Having trouble finding a taxi, hon?” I turn around, searching for the owner of the voice. Turns out it’s the friendly air hostess.

“Yeah, ma’am,” I reply. “I’ve been waiting here for ages.”

“Well, where’re you going?”

“The docks.”

“Hmm,” she thinks for a while. “You know what? I think you should come with me. Dave is coming to pick me up, and I’ll drop you off at the docks.”

I get up with a jerk. _Wow, I’m meeting a lot of nice people today._

“Thank you so much!” I jump out in happiness. “That’d be great!”

She laughs. “Well here he comes now.”

Dave, it turns out, was her brother. He looked like a typical Miami Surfer; blond hair, heavily tanned skin, heck he was even wearing surfer shorts. The only thing he was missing was a surfer board.

“Hey,” he greets me with a smile. Then he looks at my luggage. “Holy shit!” he cries out. “That won’t fit in my car!”

She looks at him menacingly. He backs down a bit. Then he turns to face me.

“I’m sorry, but you’ve got a lot of bags. Those definitely won’t fit in my car along with my sis’s bags, but I have a friend who drives. Maybe he can pick you up, yeah?”

I simply nod my head. There really wasn’t much I could say. The air hostess piles in her bags, and then gives me a happy goodbye, and then the car speeds off.

Thankfully, I don’t have to wait long for this taxi. I had only like about 20 minutes to reach the docks. After a few wrong turns, and a couple of red signals, we finally reach the docks.

_Yay!_ I think. _Now I only have another 24 hours of seasickness to look forward to!_


	3. The Journey- part 2

Let me tell you something. Cruises are not as romantic or pleasurable as they are shown in the movies. First of all, the boat is constantly turning and swaying. It was hard for me to even stand still. Thank goodness I didn’t suffer from nausea.

 Then you have to get used to how crowded the place is. I mean it’s like half of India’s population decided to go to Jurassic World right now. When I meet Siman Masrani again, I’m going to tell him how much work the cruise actually needs. Spare no expense? Yeah right.

At first glance, the ‘Hammond’ was pretty sweet, but then only when you venture inside do you realize what kind of a ship it was.

With lots of difficulty I manage to locate my room. I open the door only to find a girl wearing earphones playing some real loud music.

“Excuse me,” I look at her, crossing my arms assuming a stern face. She doesn’t hear me. “ **Excuse me?”** I sort of shout. That gets her attention. “This is my room.”  I tell her.

She pulls the pins out of her ears. “Oh really? Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, but this is my room. ”

I sit down on the bed and shove my ticket in her face. “See? Compartment 6-N”

She turns around and gets out her own ticket. “See?” She adds with an arrogant smirk. “Compartment 6-N.”

Then she resumes listening to her music. I’m getting really riled up by this girl. She was getting on my nerves. But I control myself. _After all, it’s only for a day, right?_

I grab the opposite bed and sit down. Whatever luggage I brought was only the essentials. The rest of my stuff was going to be shipped later.

Dropping the bags at both sides of my bed, I unpack my laptop and check my emails. At least this place has Wi-Fi.

I see the attachment Jurassic World sent me. I open it and read. The dim light makes reading difficult, and the swaying of the boat doesn’t help at all.

But I manage, and so far there was nothing really unexpected. I was to be an asset-consultant, and I had to monitor and research whatever dinosaurs they give me. Nothing I couldn’t do.

My roommate had finally shut off the music and she surprisingly walked over to me.

“I’m sorry for whatever happened right now, I was rude.”

“Bad day, huh?”

“Yep. I wasn’t expecting to stay with someone else.”

“Neither was I.”

There is some silence. I decide to break the tension.

“I’m Amber.”

“I’m Lillith.”

 _Lillith. I know that name._ So I, being the blunt person that I was pop the question without even a second thought.

“Lillith, do you happen to know a certain Charlie Degler by any chance?”

Her eyes widen to size the of dish saucers. “Ye-Yes,” her eyes well up with tears. _Yep. And she’s the one._ But then she looks at me with an expression that conveys pure hatred. I don’t really get scared, but her expression evoked fear inside me.

Lilllith was pretty, no doubt. She had lovely golden locks, and sterling silver eyes, and she had a great physique. Exactly Charlie’s type. So why would he ditch her? And why is she looking at me like that?

“YOU,” she glares at me. “You’re Amber Grant?” she asks me, but I’m pretty sure she knows that.

“Y-yes.” I nervously say. Her glare was more intense than what it was previously, so I do the logical thing. I run away from there. _Charlie and I were going to have a conversation he would not like._  

I don’t return back until I’m completely sure that she’s fast asleep.  No wonder she was rude, she was dumped by none other than my best friend. And I think it had something to do with me.

I look out the window at the sky. The moon was a beautiful white orb, shining with the stars glittering around it. The tranquil sea below, the serene moon below, this already sounds like I’m writing a poem. But the scene was poetic. And it lulled me to sleep.

The next day, I guess I slept in a little, so by the time I woke up, Lillith wasn’t there. Thank God. I jump out of bed and get brushing my teeth.  In about half an hour, I get out of the shower, dress myself, and sit by the table. Lillith still hadn’t returned by now, but I wasn’t really worried.

I head out to the main deck; some fresh air would clear up my head. I walk over to the railings and I lean on holding them tight. I inhale the salty smell of the sea, remembering my first visit to Isla Sorna with my parents. We had arrived there by a helicopter, though and it was way faster than this cruise.  We only had an hour to go, and I could see the faint outline of Isla Sorna.

After about half an hour, I decide to return back to the room. Since we had half an hour, I pack my stuff back into my suitcases. Lillith was already inside, but she was sleeping. No problems there.

As I pack, I think about what my family must be doing back home.

Dad would definitely be on the dig; along with Percy and Billy. Billy was on the dig ever since I was 12; 6 years since my parents’ first visit to Jurassic Park. He was always the big brother for me, and he’s been with us the second time we visited Isla Sorna.

Percy on the other hand, was the latest addition to our time, but he’s been our family since day one. He was actually just another high school intern, and he barely even spoke when he was on the dig. But dad recognized the hidden talent in him, and somehow, Dad convinced him to stay for the next month too. Percy was pretty broke, but with funds from us he attended the Montana State University, and was the Valedictorian of his batch. He got way better offers than what we could give him, one even from Jurassic world, But he stuck with us, and is sort of dad’s left hand man, if not his right.

Mom would be at the university. She kind of grew bored with the daily routine of the dig, so she decided to become a professor, and lectures at the Montana State University. Her students occasionally help out at the dig, and it was one of those students who ended up marrying Billy, Cheryl or something. Well, they’re doing great, and I think they’re having a son sometime soon.

And Sarah, she’s the youngest of us. She’s only 15, but she definitely inherited mom’s brains. She’s a kind of a loner, and she’s got quite the sass on her, but she’s pretty awesome and a great listener. You can always count on her for advice. Because she was the loner, she got bullied quite a lot; but I certainly do remember that one day when she kicked the bully right in the groins and then punched him until his nose broke. She got suspended for 5 days since that incident; but no one has ever even complimented her since that day.

 _‘Ladies and gentlemen’,_ the captain’s voice echoes through the ship. _‘Welcome to Jurassic World’._ I look outside the window to revel in the new and improved site. I manage to get out only one word. Wow.

‘ _We have reached the main port. Please stand in an orderly fashion outside on the deck’._ I grab my bags and haul them over to the deck. There was a really long line, but then I saw another door with the sign ‘employees only’. **I** am an employee, just not officially yet. Maybe I’m supposed to get my instructions there?

I walk over to that exit where a  woman with red hair and a clipboard approaches me.

"Welcome to Jurassic World. You must Amber Grant."

I look at her questioningly.

“How do you know my name?”

She sighs.” You’re our newest employee. Of course we’d know your name and your appearance.”

This woman seemed to be extremely organized and not even a single hair on her head was out of place as opposed to my messy hair in a ponytail. I felt a little self-conscious, but at least I was 5’7” without heels.

"I'm Claire Dearing, and I'm the park operations manager here. Please follow me." She had a commanding voice, like a person wanting everything in place.

“Uh Okay,” I then point over to my nags. “What about my stuff?”

“Oh right. Don’t worry about that, it’ll be taken care of.” Then she turns to a man behind her and speaks something in Spanish. The man nods, and calls over another man who ten begin picking up my bags.

 “Thanks.” I mutter to the men.

“De Nada,” he says and hurries of, not before giving me a short smile.

Claire turns and I follow her. We walk till we reach a pretty important looking office. The building was all glass, and I must say it was impressive. We get in an elevator, all the way up to the 50th floor. When I do step out, I am greeted by the lovely scent of lemon-grass. We walk on the Kashmiri carpet, and finally reach a pretty ornate door. Claire knocks at the door.

“Come in!” a recognizable male voice says.

"Mr. Masrani, she's here." Claire says, proving my assumptions.

"Ah. Yes. Please come in. Welcome. I hoped the journey went well." He calls out, and I step into his very modern office. The back wall was complete glass, and gave a beautiful view of the island.

“Nice view,” I comment.

“Thanks. Tea? Coffee? Orange Juice?” he asks me, a waiter bringing out the aforementioned refreshments.

“I’ll have the juice please,” I take the glass and settle down in the chair in front of him. Claire sits by my side.

“So. How does it look like now?” he asks me, with curiousity.

“I must say, it is pretty improved, but you really need to change your cruise boat."

He laughs. “Sure”

 “Apart from that well, there’s nothing changed much.” I set down the glass of orange juice back into the tray.

Turning to Claire he said, "Did you give her the packet?"

"Not yet sir. I'll give it after this."

"Okay. Well Ms. Grant, I hope you have a pleasant stay here." He said, almost as if he was wishing me luck.

"Well, considering my past with this island, I hope I do too."

I leave the office with Claire, and she takes me to one of the lower levels of the building. Once we reach our destination, she hands me a file.

"Well Ms. Grant, please sign this, and we will get to your living quarters."

"Call me Amber." I sign the pages as she talks to me.

"Okay Amber. So, have you read everything now?"

"Sure." I said, as something caught my attention. "Wait a minute. I have to TRAIN DINOSAURS?"

"Yes. Didn't you read that page before?" She asks me

"No, it wasn't there in the e-mail you sent me. You mentioned I had to be an asset consultant, whatever that means, but this,” I point to the contract. “This is something totally different."

"Lowery probably forgot to scan that page. I'll send those pages to you later. “ she casually waves her hand as if what I just said meant nothing.

"What do you want me to do, teach them circus tricks?" I exclaim. This was getting frustrating. How can one not mention such an important detail while recruiting new employees?

Claire rolls her eyes. "I'll email you the pages he didn't scan. So come along already." She says, exasperatedly.

"Fine. What kind of dinosaurs will I be working with?" I ask her. The pay. Amber, focus on the pay. And the car. And the villa. And the sick leave. Anything but this.

"Let me check." She said, and then looked at something on her board. "Yes. You and Mr. Grady will be working with Velociraptors."

_HOLY SHIT._


	4. 4-The Partner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the kudos! I'm going to go ahead and give you guys a double chapter update!

" WHAT? No, no, no ,no. I do NOT work with raptors, okay? I like them dead. Not alive and with brains smart enough to know what to kill." I almost have a mental break-down.

“Well, that’s too bad. You can’t go back since you already signed the contract.” She looks at me, her hands crossed over. She was almost like a mini-mom.

“Please no. I’ll work with dinosaur shit but not this.” I beg her, hoping she’ll reconsider.

“I’m sorry-” she begins but I knew that drastic measures had to be taken. I started shouting at poor Claire.

“HOW CAN YOU DO THIS? HOW DOES SOMEONE FORGET TO SEND SUCH AN IMPORTANT PAGE?-”

She just stands there quietly listening to me but when I say, “I’LL SUE YOUR COMPANY FOR DOING THIS TO ME,” 

She yells back at me. “HOW ABOUT YOU ACTUALLY READ SOMETHING IN YOUR LIFE!” but she regains her composure as fast as she lost it. “I’m sorry for the outburst, err…”

“Oh, right. Yeah. Um, I shouldn’t have yelled, but..”

“Right. Well I understand your – displeasure, but I can’t reassign you on such short notice.”

“So that means- raptors?” I asked her nervously. Please say no, please say no, please say-

“Yes.” Screw my luck. “You will be working with raptors.”

“But, don’t worry,” she continued. “The eggs haven’t even hatched yet. And they’ll be imprinted on you as soon as they hatch.”

I take in a deep breath. “Okay. So, they won’t eat me?”

“Let’s hope not.” She says casually. Let’s hope not? What the hell?

But I don’t freak out. 

She turns and starts walking towards the elevator. I follow her in. She pushes the button to the basement, and we descend down. The entire ride down, I could think of only one thing. These guys really needed to change their elevator music. 

Finally, after what felt like an hour, and after the torture of what we call Opera music, we walk over to Claire’s car.

“Nice car,” I comment. She smiles, opening the door.

She owned a beautiful gray Mercedes Benz GLE Coupe. And if I was stunned by its beauty on the outside, it was paralyzed to see the inside. It was marvelous. Black leather seats, Aluminum trim; it was the epitome of classy and modern. 

“Thank you. Now get in.” I slid over in the passenger seat. She starts the car, and we head out of the basement parking. As soon as we are out, my body slightly relaxes. I didn’t even know I was tensed up till that moment. 

“So Claire,” I strike up some conversation. “When did you start working here?”

“Around 3 years ago, I guess. I wasn’t really that experienced so the panel initially refused, but Mr. Masrani agreed to take me in. I had a mentor for the first year, but now, I’m on my own.”

“So that kinda makes you the big boss?”

She laughed. “No no, not exactly. I’m the one who checks all the assets in the control room, monitors the activity, tell the people what to do-”

“That’s exactly what a boss does.” I interrupt her.

She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Well, fine, I might be the big boss-”

“You accept it. You are the boss here. So anyway, why are you driving me to the quarters? Shouldn’t you know, tell your assistant or something?” In my experience, no senior officer even makes coffee for an employee, let alone drive one all the way back to their new house.

“Oh, that, well I don’t really have an assistant, plus I gotta pick up something from my house, so, I figured out I’ll drive you there.”

“Well, thanks.”

“Anytime,” she says and stops the car. “Ah, we’re here.”

The structure in front of me was not a bungalow. It was a palace.

It was massive, probably 3 or 4 stories tall, on the right side, there was a big garage which would definitely house three of my Camaros, and there was that garden I’ve always dreamed with a fountain and the flowers- you get the point. Maybe I was exaggerating, but compared to the tents that we lived in back at the dig, even a one bedroomed flat would be heaven. 

“Wow.” Are the only words I manage to get out.

“Wow indeed. And guess what? You own this place now,” Claire added with a smirk, as she dropped the keys in my hand. “Go on, open the door.” She nudged me ahead.

I slipped the key into the keyhole, but just as I was to turn it, a man pulled it inside, and I lost my balance and fell. Right on top of him.

He has beautiful eyes, inner me thought. 

Shut up inner me! What is wrong with you?

You want to touch those muscles.

No I don’t!

I’m sorry, I meant that you wanted to grab his hair and kiss him senseless.

What? Where did that come from? NO I DON’T!

Denial will get you nowhere, Amber.

I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU INNER AMBER NOW SHUT UP!

“Sweetheart, I really appreciate your love for me, but can you please get off me?” his voice brings me back to the present.

I immediately scrambled back up and tried to use one of my mom’s glares. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE? AND I AM NO ONE’S SWEETHEART!” I yell at him.

He folds his hands and then raises an eyebrow. “YOUR house?”

“Yes, MINE!” I knew I had epically failed at the glare.

“Look, sweetheart, firstly this is private property. You’re trespassing. I can have you sued. Secondly, You were breaking and entering my house-”

“I wasn’t breaking and entering, I had a key.”

“Whatever, I’m sorry but you need-”

Claire pushes the door and enters inside.

“Amber what’s taking you so long,” then she looks beside me. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” 

He rolls his eyes at her. “I’m Owen? Owen Grady? Remember you told me I was supposed to live here?”

Claire looks at him, dumbfounded. 

“A few days ago?” he tries again.

“OH right! Right, sorry sorry.” She apologizes and then looks at me. “Amber you and Owen are working on the raptor assignment- wait what are you doing here again?”

He sighs. “You told me that this bungalow is mine a few days ago, remember?”

Claire thinks for a while, clearly puzzled. She then checks her clipboard, frantically turning over pages. I know she’s found something really bad when her eyes widen as she looks at the paper. She gets out her call phone and dials a number.

“Get Lowery on line.” There was some incomprehensible murmuring from the other side. 

“LOWERY! I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!” 

“WHAT IS THIS?” she screams into her phone. I kinda feel sorry for the Lowery guy. You do not want to mess around with Claire. At all.

“No this is completely unacceptable!” She yells out again. There is some mumbling on the other side.

“I figure, that might work, but if not, then?” 

“Fine Whatever.” Claire forcefully pushes the end button and then looks back at us.

“Due to a certain misunderstanding,” she starts. Shit. I know I was screwed when she said certain.

“You have been allotted the same house. But-” She finishes.

“WHAT! NO!” both Owen and I say at the same time. 

“Unacceptable, no way!” I wave my hands around. 

“Yep. I don’t want to bunk with potential murderers.” He adds. 

“I’m not a potential murderer! And what makes you think I’m going to bunk with you?”

“Well,” he begins. I desperately wanted to smack clean that evil smirk on his face. I was fuming now. “Better girls have tried and failed, you know.”

“Yeah? Well then they probably didn’t know the difference between a garbage can and a man .” 

“Really sweetheart? That the best you got?” he challenges me. Oh just you wait you little goddamn pretty- Wait. Where did Pretty Come from Inner Amber? What’s wrong with me?

“No? I guess you want to be insulted more. Sure. You are an egoistic piece of-”

Claire snaps at us. “SHUT YOUR BICKERING RIGHT NOW!” 

There is silence. Claire rolls her eyes. “God, you two are so annoying. You’re a team, better act like one. Consider this as a bonding experience, or whatever. Get to know each other.”

“Sure thing Claire. Leave the helpless girl alone with the egoistical jerk.” I shoot daggers at Owen. He does the one eyebrow raise. Then he walks over to Claire, with a much serious face.

“Wait. This was not in my contract. I was promised a great house, a great bike, and a great pay. Not whiny teenagers who look like they want to kill you as your roommate.” He stands in front of her, crossing his arms. She takes a step back.

“I AM NOT A WHINY-” I began, before I was rudely interrupted by the ray of sunshine called Claire.

“Whatever. I don’t care. What you,” she points her finger at me. “And you,” she points it at Owen. “Need to do is get along.”

There is a deafening silence.

“Meet me at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Headquarters.”

She grabs her coat and walks out. When did she even remove it? Then she turns around as if she forgot something.

“Don’t. Be. Late.” She reminds us and walks to her car. 

“Thanks Claire, for your outstanding amount of faith in us.” I mutter.

“So,” I turn to Owen. “Which areas have you already contaminated?”

“WHAT?” he looks at me, with a puzzled expression.

That looks so sweet.

I do not have time for this Inner me. 

Tell him you like him.

Where would you even get that idea?

From you of course.

“You know, the areas you’ve already used.” I elaborate, ignoring inner Amber’s irritating statement.

“Oh.” He says, his expression returning to normal. “The entire house actually,” then he grabs my hand. “Including you.”

Okay. So I kind of deserved that one. I didn’t know what to say. I pull back my hand immediately.

“Whatever, I’m gonna grab my bags, and go to my room.” I try to avoid awkwardness.

“Where are they, exactly?” he asked me. Right. I didn’t have them yet.

“Um..”

“That’s what I thought.” he added with a grin. 

“Whatever, I’m just gonna go to my room. Goodbye Mr.Grady.” 

He laughs that beautiful laugh. Screw you inner Amber for making me feel like this.

You don’t really mean that.

Yes I do. 

“Pleasant meeting you too, sweetheart.” He adds. 

“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m nobody’s sweetheart?” I yell down the stairs.

“Remember, the bedroom on the end of the right corridor is mine!” he shouts. 

So I make sure to stay clear of the right corridor. I’m not going anywhere even near that room.

The first room I walk in is painted in a lovely light green color, with brown hardwood tiles. There was a nice beige rug in front of the queen-sized bed. The ceiling, however was a forest dark green. When I closed my eyes, I could almost smell the pine, hear the gurgling rivers and feeI the coolness all around me. The bed however, was not green, and was instead a deep dark purple. I walk over and touch one of the sheets. And I plop myself unceremoniously on the soft mattress. I felt like I had experienced heaven. It was that soft. 

It is only after a couple of hours that I get up from the bed and go check out the other rooms.

The next one I visited was the room opposite to mine. Despite all their crappy services so far, Jurassic World really spared no expense on their interior decorators. Good one Masrani.

This room was equally impressive as the one I had decided to call mine, if not slightly better. The room had turquoise walls with orange curtains that brightened up the entire place. Also, there was a large white circular bed with sea blue accents. The floor was covered up with a sandy yellow carpet, and everywhere I looked there were seashells of some kind. 

When I walked into my room, I felt like I walked into a forest, but in here, it was like experiencing the ocean. I wonder what it was like in Owen’s room. 

In what context, Amber?

Shut up inner me. 

I ignore the thought and return back to my room. A nap would be nice a guess. I lay down on the velvety bed and close my eyes.


	5. 5-The Motorcycle

“GOOD MORNING GRANT” yelled a voice early in the morning. “5 minutes more dad.” I mumble, pulling the covers tightly on my head.

“Sorry Grant, but I am not your dad. BUT YOU WILL NOT GET 5 MORE MINUTES. IT IS ALREADY 7 AND CLAIRE TOLD US TO VISIT HER AT 8.” 

I just simply put the pillow on my ears, and turn on the other side.

All of a sudden, somebody pulled of my covers and I was there in my bed. Clad only in my underwear.

Both of us freeze like Captain America in ice.

Then I scream.

“YOU IDIOT! HOW DARE YOU! COME BACK YOU LITTLE *#@! %&.” I screamed and quickly stood up taking the covers from his hands. The man in question was none other than my idiot of a house-mate Owen Grady. Turns out my little nap became a full 9 hour sleep. That’s why naps are weird. You never know when you’ll wake up. You could sleep for 10 minutes, 10 hours or even an eternity.

“What are you doing in my room?” I yell at him, covering my body with the sheets. He turns around and covers his eyes. At least he has some decency. 

“What does it look like, genius?” 

“I would say, some either some sort of murdering or stalking-”

“My God, you never stop do you?” he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I was just here to wake you up!”

“NEXT TIME TRY KNOCKING.” 

“I did! It wasn’t my fault that you are like a rock when you sleep!” he argued.

“Whatever! I don’t care. Now GET OUT OF HERE!” I shout at him. This was certainly uncomfortable.

“Yeah, okay, okay,” he says and goes out of the room. Thank God. 

I decided to take a shower after brushing my teeth, but then I realized that I forgot my shirt. My shirt was on my bag, just in my room. I carefully stepped out and just as I reached for the shirt-

“Ahhhh!” both of us scream at the same time. But that didn’t make me feel any less embarrassed and I quickly reach for my towel to cover myself. “What the hell are you doing here now?” I manage to say, somehow.

“I was just here to take my-” his eyes drop down to my towel. “Oh.” 

“What is with you and my- Excuse me, my eyes are up here.” I cross my hands, as Owen’s eyes trail to my err- chest. Stupid pervert. Although what I did was a bad idea, because my towel was on the verge of slipping. “Turn around, please!” I tighten the towel and grab the shirt. 

“You are not allowed in my room unless it’s a national emergency, got it?” I scold him. Seriously, has this boy learnt no modern etiquette at all?

“But it is a national emergency! I forgot my phone in your room!” he says. He appears to be equally flustered as I am.

“Get out. Right now.” I walk over to him and try and punch him while holding onto my tpwel at the same time. Sadly, I cannot get the hit I wanted.

“Oww. I am screaming in agony.” He sarcastically says. Yeah, I obviously was going to have to work out a bit more. I go over to my bed and grab his phone.

“Here you go” I say as I toss it out. He runs out and catches it.

“Hey sweetheart, take it easy on the phone, kay? The house may be free but the phone isn’t.” I catch him staring at my assets, for lack of a decent word, again.

I snap my fingers. “Hello-o,” I point 2 of my fingers from my eyes to his. Then, I glare at him the way my mother does when my dad does something stupid. Yep. The glare is equivalent to medusa’s stare. But, he didn’t turn to stone, so I guess have to work on that too.

“I’m going! Jeez. I won’t come back to your room ever again.” He says after taking one look at me and then he runs out. 

After putting on my shirt and my favorite pair of jeans, I walk down to meet up with Owen. As I descend down, the stairs, I am gifted the sight of my precious bags.

“Finally!” I run down the stairs even faster. Owen is already down surrounded by a number of boxes. He immediately smiles on seeing me.

“Hey, your stuff just came- Oof.” He says, nearly tripping over one of the boxes on his way over.

“Be Careful!” I dash over to my precious box and grab it. 

“Oww. Here I am in excruciating pain whereas you are worried about a stupid cardboard box?” He looks at me in a fake hurt expression. I roll my eyes, but I lend him a hand. He grabs it and I pull him up.

“Books before boys. That’s my life’s motto.” I smirk at him.

“I am wounded.” He clutches his heart and fake moans. 

“Best get used to it, buddy.” I chuckle and playfully tap his head.

He checks his watch. “Holy shit. We’re late.” 

We literally run over to the garage, where I see Owen’s beautiful Triumph Scrambler 900 standing in all its glory.

“I’m in love.” I say. 

“You’re what?” he asks me, very confused. “I mean, my record was like 3 days, but if what you said is true-”

“I meant your bike, stupid.” I roll my eyes. 

Do you really though?

Inner me if you don’t shut up I will have to get rid of you.

“Well, she’s new. Courtesy of Simon Masrani,” He says proudly admiring the bike.

“Say what you want,” I run my hand over the handles, feeling the smooth metal. “You’ve got good taste in wheels.”

“That I do.” Owen says, smiling.

That’s when I realized something. 

“Um Owen?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t really have a car. Or a bike for that matter.”

“Oh. Right.” He says. Looks like I had to make him understand the situation. 

“That translates to, ‘I’m going to need a car’.” I explain for him.

“I’m not stupid sweetheart. Hop on.” He gestured to his bike. I happily skip over. 

“Can I drive?” I asked him, using my best puppy eyes expression. I wasn’t as good as Sam Winchester, but I could pull it off sometimes.

His expression falls. Haha. Resistance is futile. Surrender, and you will have your heart left in a single piece. Mission accomplished!

“No. Never in a million years.” He shrugs his head. Mission failed. Okay. Plan B, play by the ego.

“Okay, macho man. I bet I could drive better than you ever can.”

He rolls his eyes. “Now’s not the time. We barely have 15 minutes to go. And like I said, you even touch the keys you’re going down.”

“Yes sir.” I mock salute him.

“I was in the Navy. They shipped me out here to do god knows what. Oh and put on that helmet please, safety first.” 

I groan and grab the helmet of the table. “Don’t you need one?”

“You’re wearing mine Amber.” His voice softens.

“Oh right. Aren’t you- Whoahh!” I clutch the sides of the bike as he revs the engine and takes off.

“Hey sweetheart,” he says to me once we are out of the main parking lot.

“What?” 

“You might want to hold me right now and secure yourself.” WHAT THE F*** is going on here? 

“EXCUSE ME?” I shout out. Yeah, I was almost blown by the sheer force of that thing.

“What just happened there? That was nothing. What’s going to come is going to be worse than that. Whatever. Your loss,” He looks behind and tells me. Then, he accelerates so hard I think my knuckles turned white because of the way I was gripping the sides.

You should have taken up his offer, Amber.

Oh, shut up inner me. Now is no time to be a romantic sap.

But you already are one!

I am not!

Go on, just wrap your arms around his waist.

Not happening in a million years. 

Then suffer in pain. 

Yep. I can do that.

Even in high speed, I could see the picturesque scenery of Isla Sorna. It certainly was a tropical paradise. As we leave the road that that connected the living quarters to the rest of the island, I raise my arms and shout. 

“YOU OKAY THERE AMBER?” Owen asks me loudly, as the wind howled past us.

“YEAH. THIS PLACE IS A PARADISE FOR SOMEONE WHO’S LIVED THEIR ENTIRE LIFE IN THE DESERT.” I shout back. 

He chuckles and continues driving. As we near the main building, I squeal in excitement which makes Owen almost skid the bike!

“Control your fangirling woman!” he shouts over to me.

“Yeah, shut up. You’d be excited too if you had an opportunity to see a mososaurus.” I snap at him.

“Oh, right. The whale which is actually a reptile. Yep.”

“Huh, who would’ve thought? You’re not as stupid as I thought you’d be,” I say. 

“Well, sweetheart, I’m full of surprises, you know.” 

“Shut up you narcissistic- AHH!!” 

The bike skids on a speed breaker, and I get thrown off the seat, with my poor head ramming into a pole. Ouch. I try to steady myself into a sitting position, but I fall down almost immediately. I see a group randomly colored flesh-blobs running to me. Slowly enough, the blobs start becoming more defined, and the two nearest to me haul me up and set me on a chair.

Someone gets an icepack, and I hold it up on my head. “Thank you,” I mumble. After receiving a lot of weird looks from the people, the crowd around me finally does start to clear. 

“Sweetheart.” Not again Owen, not again. What will it cost you to shut up? “Shouldn’t you, I dunno, maybe take off the helmet before icing your head?” he continues. 

Owen Grady, I officially hate you. I fiddle around with the clasp, and when Owen tries to help me, I swat his hands away.

“I do not need your help,” I angrily say at him. After a minute or two, I manage to get the damn thing of me. Then, I put the ice on my head.

“See? Unlike you, I am perfectly capable of doing things myself.” I wish I could’ve taken that comment back as soon as I said it. Owen looked pretty bad, and I think he broke his arm. His hair was disheveled, and his cheek had blood running over it.

“Are you okay, Owen?” I ask him, tenderly.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? We should hurry up, Claire will most likely kill us for being so late-”

“Are you even listening to yourself right now! Your arm is broken. You have blood on your face. This is serious. Why didn’t anyone call an ambulance?”

“There is no need to do that, I-”

I ignore him and call emergency services.

“Hello, Jurassic World Emergency Services, please state your-”

“Yeah. Uh, my partner over here has a heavily swollen arm, and a serious cut.”

“Can you state your location?”

“Right, um let’s see, I guess we are near the mososaurus exhibit.”

“We’ll send help right away.”

“Thank you very much.” I end the call, and sigh in relief. I then pay attention to Owen, and hand him a bottle of water. 

“Drink up,” I command. He obeys. After he’s done, he wipes his mouth and then drops his.

“This is not what I expected here.” He says in a defeated voice.

“I didn’t expect this either, looks like this place is going to be the end of me.”

“Yep.”

It wasn’t long before the ambulance and a very angry boss arrives. The paramedics rush out of the van and set Owen on a chair. Then a man asks him questions while a young nurse wraps his arms. Being the male species of human that he is, he starts flirting with her, and the poor girl turns red. The doctor, however is not so impressed by Owen and when he cleans the cut on his head, I think he applied more pressure than necessary which made Owen wince.

“I knew that giving the bike to you was a wrong move, stupid me, how could I be so stupid, my gosh you could’ve died how did this happen-” Claire paces back and forth, mumbling something and waving her hands around. 

“Um, technically, it wasn’t his fault or mine, it was the road’s fault,” I add. I was doing this only for the bike.

“Yeah, totally that dumb speedbump, like who the hell even put it there?” um, Owen, that’s taking it a bit too far. Evidently, Claire also believes this.

“That’s stupid. You’re stupid, I should’ve known-” and she goes back to her incoherent freaking out. The job must really get to poor Claire. 

After the paramedics are done with Owen, they turn to me. 

“What? No, I’m good, I don’t need anything,” I try to talk them out of it, but the doctor forcibly pushes me down on the chair and shines a torch in my eye.

“Thankfully, no concussion,” He says as he writes something on that clipboard of his, and the nurse begins to clean the minor scrapes I get.

I don’t take much time after that. The ambulance goes away as fast as it came, and the only people left now were me, Owen and Claire.

“You guys had a fantastic first day.” Thank you Claire, for that unnecessary sarcasm.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Owen scratches the back of his head with his good arm. His left arm was in a sling so that was going to make the motorcycle driving impossible.

“Anyways, we’re going to skip the tour and go straight to the hatchery.”

“Wait what?” my eyes widen. If what I thought was going to happen, I had to be prepared.

“That can mean only one thing,” Owen said. Both of us look at each other, the same expression of uncertainty on our face.

“THE EGGS ARE HATCHING!” both of us shout.


	6. 6-The Geneticist

Claire looks at us like we developed a third ear. Well I was starting to freak out. I wasn’t prepared for this to happen. 

Okay Amber, breathe. 

Inner Amber gives sound advice for the first time in my life. 

“Whatever gives you that idea? And Amber, I thought your head was okay?” she starts checking me head for injuries.

I push her away. “No Claire, I’m not that gone. Why else would you want us to go to the hatchery?”

“I thought you might want to see the eggs.”

“Oh,” Owen deflates a bit. I guess he really wanted to see the raptors. Let’s see what he thinks when they develop razor sharp claws.

“Anyways, Mr. Grady, I’ve called Tow services to pack up your bike. It will be taken to the garage, and they should fix it soon enough.”

“Yeah,” he looks in the direction of the ruined bike. “You know what? Tell them to put her back in the villa. I’ll fix her myself.”

I raise my eyebrow at him. “You can fix a bike? Do you even know how it works?”

He rolls his eyes at me. “You don’t have to contradict my intelligence every time I say something, Ms. Grant.” Oooh, someone was feisty. “Growing up in a garage tends to leave you with some knowledge about wheels.”

“And the engine?” I ask.

He sighs. “You’re impossible you know that?”

“Of course, sweetheart.” I wink at him. 

Claire looks at us blankly. “Wow, you guys. So, I’ll just tell them to place it outside headquarters. Anyways, I brought my car. Get in.”

Headquarters was only 15 minutes away from where the Mosasaur exhibit. I was so going to check out that place. 

After we reached, Claire handed the keys to her car to some valet boy, and then walked inside, flinging her jacket over her shoulder.

“Guys come on.” She turns around and scolds us. “We don’t have all day.” 

“Yes ma’am.” Me and Owen nod, and follow her inside. Claire walks over to the receptionist.

“Hello Ms. Dearing,” he greets Claire. Then he looks at us, with a who-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-here expression. I glare at him and he thankfully backs down. My appearance was probably not very welcoming. He turns his attention towards Claire. “How can I help you?”

“Project I.B.R.I.S, these are the trainers,” she, for some reason, whispers. His approach towards us suddenly changes, he looks very interested in what she had said.

“Right of course ma’am. You know where to go. Is their data entered into the system?”

“No of course not.”

“Okay” he hands out visitor’s badges. 

We take the badges and while I pin it to the pocket of my jeans, Owen shoves his in a pocket of his multi-pocketed vest. 

As we follow Claire through the never-ending hallway, I ask him a question.

“How do you even find anything in that big jacket of yours?”

He laughs. “Well, wouldn’t you want to know?”

I roll my eyes. I crossed my fingers and hoped we were there already. Turns out I was right, for a change.

“So, guys, get in!” Claire almost pushes us inside the room. It wasn’t a very big room, probably the size of one of the old tents back at the dig. Inside, there is one single person sitting on the desk.

“Hello,” she says in a familiar British Accent. “Get in front of the camera and let me take a picture.”

Uh, okay. This lady was slightly intimidating. Claire, however was not really that surprised. Not wanting to be first, I push Owen in front of the white background, and he barely has time to adjust himself into a decent position before we hear the Click sound of the camera. 

“This is Tracy,” Claire whispered to me. “She is a bit-”

“Bold,” I complete for her.

“Yeah, she doesn’t mess around with formalities.” 

I could see Owen wincing as Tracy painfully plucked a hair from his head for a DNA scan. I start preparing myself for the torture. 

Owen was done in 5 minutes, and he had a shiny new plastic ID card, which he kept in a different pocket. I wonder what he uses all of them for. 

I step in front of the camera to get my photo, and remembering what happened with my poor partner, I quickly fix my hair and smile. Just in time too. I give Tracy my documents, and after she enters everything in the computer, we move on to health testing. Damn, I needed to lose some weight. When it was time for the DNA testing, I pluck out my own hair and hand it to Tracy. She looks shocked, but she takes the strand and goes over to the sequencing machine. I can hear Owen snickering softly. After some more time, it was finally done. Tracy gives, more like throws the ID card over to me.

“Now you folks remember, this is only for this place, and you cannot use it anywhere else. AND NO it cannot be used as a credit card.”

Both me and Owen look at her weirdly. How old does she think we are?

“How old do you think we are, ma’am?” Owen does ask her. Brave guy.

“Thank you very much, Tracy,” Claire interrupts and then grabs Owen’s arm. “We’re late.” Then she grabs my hand and drags us out of the room. “Oh and you can discard the visitor’s badges now.”

“Why did you even give them to us?”

“Standard protocol. All new employees which do not have an ID must wear a visitor’s badge.”

Hmm. “Can I get a new ID?” I ask Claire.

“Why? What for? You just got one.” 

“No, the photo is pretty bad. I look like a dazed ankylosaurus.”

Owen looks at my ID and sniggers. “That’s right, you sorta do look like one.”

“Yours isn’t any better.” I say as I lean in to see his own photo. “You’re a baboon on drugs.”

“Yeah I blame Tracy. She’s weird,” Owen adds, looking at the photo on his ID clearly disgusted. I nod in agreement. Claire rolls her eyes. 

“Seriously, come on guys, we’re getting really really late.”

“Okay!” I raise my hands in surrender. “We’re just following you.”

Claire nods, and then starts walking at a pace I wouldn’t have thought was possible in those thin high heels. I have trouble catching up. 

By the time we reach, I am exhausted. Never underestimate a working woman in heels. Owen is a bit tired too. Claire flashes her ID on a scanner, and the door to the lab opens. We follow Claire inside. There were plenty of scientists in white lab coats moving equipment, noting things on a clipboard, and working with eggs. 

Claire leads to us an isolated table; with the only attendant is someone I know. Lillith. My eyes widen in surprise, and her mouth drops to the ground on seeing me. Both of us were not, really on good terms. Owen is the only one who seems to notice that, but he chooses not to say anything.

Claire, who doesn’t seem to recognize her, asks her right away. “Are you new?”

Lillith laughs. “No, no, I was on vacation, but I couldn’t get back because of some- stuff I had to deal with.” Then she takes in our disheveled appearances and Owen’s arm. “Wow, you guys have been through a lot today, haven’t you?”

“Don’t ask.” Owen adjusted his sling. 

“So, we are working on 4 different velociraptors. So far, we only have the one egg ready.”

Okay. So one raptor. That isn’t so hard! 

“We molded them using DNA from different lizards. Each one will be different from each other. The best combination will be replicated.” 

“One question,” I ask. “What happened to the Original raptor pack? The one that the Original park had created?”

She looks a bit surprised. “Well, I guess most of them were destroyed, but the DNA we’ve used, it comes partially from the original pack Dr. Wu created.”

Shit. 

“Okay,” I breathe. The raptors I was going to work with might have the genes of the ones that nearly killed me. This was going to be so much fun. 

“Are you okay, Amber?” Lillith said snarkily. I know that she is not concerned about me in any way, but I know to pick my fights. This could wait until later.

“Never been better, thank you. So what’s next?” I ask her, maintaining a neutral expression on my face. 

“Okay, so now that we have your DNA, it shouldn’t be hard for us to make the raptors imprint on you. All you have to do is be there when they hatch. The other 3 eggs will arrive sometime between the next week. They are almost ready.” she explains.

“Okay,” Owen nodded. “So when will they hatch?”

“After 3 weeks.”

“Great,” I conclude. Claire smiles at Lillith and thanks her for her time. Owen smiles at her, and follows Claire outside. However, I have some scores to settle. As Lillith starts putting away stuff, I ask her.

“What is your problem with me?” I slam my hand on the table.

She looks a little startled, but then answers in a calm tone. “Nothing.”

“Then why? What did I do?” I was pretty confused by now.

“He hasn’t told you, has he?” she looked at me, tears in those silver eyes.

“No. All I know, is that you guys broke up and Charlie came by to drop me all lovey-dovey and mopey.”

“Hey, I know this isn’t your fault, but it doesn’t make this any better, you know. I can’t help being bitter.” She looks away from me, and injects something into the raptor egg.

“Okay, I get it you two have your issues, but what does this have to do with me?”

She looks at me with a hopeless expression in her eyes. “It’s not my place to tell. I can only say sorry, Amber. You seem like a great person, but it’s hard for me to not resent you. But I’ll try to be friendlier. I’m sorry.” So saying, she leaves the table and walks into an office. I would’ve followed her, but I realize that I’ve lost Claire. Great. Just my luck. 

As I run out of the lab, I get the feeling all the scientists were staring at me. Maybe, I caused a bit of a scene, but- Crash! I slam into another person, and both of us fall to the ground. 

“Get off me sweetheart, you’ve got to expressing your emotions this way. You like me, we can simply talk, ok?” Great. The person had to be Owen. Ugh.

“Stop it Owen, you no I’d never date you in a million years. Go away.” I get back on my feet, and brush the dirt off my shirt. “Where’s Claire?” I ask him, as he pulls himself up. 

“Yeah, she had something she needed to take care of. She left.”

“Oh.” There is silence as we walk down the corridor.

“So where do we go now?” I ask him.

“I don’t know, let’s just head back to the house.”

“Yeah, I’ve got some unpacking to do.” I agree with him. Today has been a- stressful day.

“How are we going to get home though?” I ask him. 

“Well, my bike isn’t that busted up, so I could ride it, but it’ll be risky with one hand. But nah, bad idea. With your extra weight, it’ll be impossible.” 

“I hate you so much Owen Christopher Grady.” I look sternly at him.

“Wait a minute, how do you know my middle name?” 

“I read your ID. Anyways, how are we supposed to get back?”

“We could call Claire?” he suggests. Right. I dial her number on my phone. It goes straight to voicemail. 

“Try again,” Owen tells me. I dial the number again. She doesn’t pick up. 

“Give it to me,” he snatches the phone from my hands, and starts typing in her number. He puts it to his ears.

“Any response?” I ask him.

“Nope.” He hands the phone back to me. 

“Let’s try your phone then.” I point to his phone.

“Yeah, sorry. My phone’s dead,” He apologetically says. And then everything turns dark.

“DON’T WORRY PEOPLE! WE’LL FIX IT!” I hear a voice shout out. Great. Now we had no electricity.

“DON’T WORRY PEOPLE! THERE’S A BACKUP GENERATOR.” Another voice, which I recognize to be the receptionist’s, shouts back.

“I, UH, ACCIDENTALLY BLEW IT UP. ALSO, COMMUNICATIONS IN THIS BUILDING ARE DOWN. SORRY.” 

“PLEASE TELL ME YOU DID NOT SHUT DOWN THE POWER TO THE ENTIRE PARK!”

“I DIDN’T!”

Awesome. Slowly, my eyes adjust to the darkness, and I find my phone and turn on the flashlight.

“Much better,” I say to myself.

In the dim flashlight, I confront Owen. “Now what do we do?”

“Grab the bus.”

I sigh. “The bus it is then. I don’t have any money though.”

“Let’s just hope this one is free.”


	7. The Horn

After 10 wrong turns, and a run in with some very angry people, we finally manage to get outside. The hot temperature outside made me want to go back to the air-conditioned building, but what would I do sitting there? 

“Hey, do you know where the bus station is?” I ask Owen. 

“Nope. I came in 2 days before you did, remember?”

“Yeah.” Both of us think for a while.

“Let’s just go ask some tourists.”

“How would the tourists know? They’re well, tourists.”

“But they might have a map or something. Do you have a better idea?”

“Let’s go ask an employee.” I cross my arms over my chest. We were supposed to be the people working here. 

“What? That’s no fun. Look at that, ” he said as he pointed his finger at a very pretty woman in a red sundress. “Now look at that.” He pointed to a middle-aged man with a paunch in the Jurassic World uniform. 

“You’re seriously going to ask someone on the basis of their attractiveness?” 

“Yep,” he winks at me. I roll my eyes. “Watch and learn sweetheart,” he says and approaches the woman in the red dress.

I head over to the guy.

“Excuse me sir, do you know where the bus station is?”

“Oh yes. You go straight from here, take a right, walk another block, and there should be one behind the Mosasaurus exhibit.” Turns out the old guy was friendly.

“Will there be a bus to take us directly to the Employee residential section?”

“Ah, no,” he observes me for a minute. “You’re new here right?”

“Yep. My first day, actually.”

He looks surprised, taking in my appearance. “Huh. Well not a very good start, then.”

“Nope.” I stick a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

“Well, anyways. You can take the bus to the Triceratops Territory, and then you’ll have to walk. I’m assuming you live near the lake?”

“Yes.”

“Great. It shouldn’t be hard to find.” Then he takes a piece of paper from his bag and writes something on it.”

“So this is a standard tourist’s map, but as you can see, that’s the lake,” he says as he points towards the north section of the island. “That’s where you want to go.”

“Thank you so much, sir.” I fold the map and put it in my pocket. 

“Anytime kid. Good luck.” 

“I’m going to need it.” I smile at him, and then make my way towards my highly idiotic partner.

He was still chatting up the woman. Typical. I tap his shoulders, trying to get his attention. That doesn’t work. So I grab his vest, and pull him as hard as I could. That actually does work. 

“What are you doing?” a highly annoyed Owen asks me.

“I got the information. Let’s go now.”

“Wait, but I am so close to getting her number-”

“I don’t care. You are here to work, god dammit.”

“Fine.” He leaves me and walks over to the lady. Looking at her smile, and Owen’s attempts to make a move on her, I give up. He’s never going to be serious. I ignore the two of them and walk in the direction of the bus stop. 

Owen catches up not that much later. 

“Hey Amber, guess what?”

I sigh. “You got her number,” I say blandly.

“Yes I did!” he sounds more excited than Sarah when she heard that I was going to Jurassic World. Speaking of whom, I have to call my family. “How did you know?” he asks me, curious.

“You don’t have to be genius to figure that out,” I roll my eyes, and stand under the shade of the bus stand. Boy, the heat was really getting to me now. 

The bus to Triceratops territory arrives almost 7 minutes later. Somehow I had managed to shut Owen up, so I could think in peace. The last few days have been a bit overwhelming. The actual job, Owen, Lillith, Claire, Simon Masrani, and the eggs. I think i doze off at some point, because Owen shakes me awake, and we get down the bus. 

The man sure wasn’t lying when he said we had to walk. After trekking through what seems to be like 3 miles, we finally see our house. I’m pretty sure we would be lost, if it wasn’t for the map. After I go back I’m going to frame this thing.

I take out the keys to the house from my pocket and unlock the door. Inside we see a complete mess. So many cardboard boxes strewn everywhere, it was hard for us to even climb the stairs.

“Wow, I guess they brought my stuff too!” Owen says, as he enters the house.

“Yeah, so many boxes. We’re going to need at least 2 days to put everything in its place,” I tell him. He grabs a box and sits on the floor.

“Yep.” He opens the box with a knife he took out from his jacket.

“Oh look, my entire movie collection is here!” he happily says.

I run into the kitchen to get a pair of scissors. Then I start opening my own boxes.

“Yes! My entire Harry Potter collection came in!” Finally!

“Geek,” Owen mouths to me.

“Shut up. I’m not the one who has an entire box full of comic books. Like seriously man, the ‘Infinity Gauntlet’? ‘Spider-verse’? You’re a bigger geek than I am.”

He snatches the box out of my hands. “Where did you even find that? Why did you find that?”

I hand the box over to him and then walk over to the phone. “Hey Owen, I’m going to order some food. Wow, they even have a menu and everything here. Anyways, you want anything?”

“Oh, man, I didn’t even know I had these!” Ok. Owen was pretty distracted. Never mind, I’ll just order 2 pizzas. After I finish ordering a Pepperoni pizza with stuffed crust and mushrooms, I get back to opening more boxes. 

A smile finds its way on my face when I open the next box. Dad had sent my souvenirs from our previous digs. Owen has a peek. He gently picks up a pointy ivory horn from the box, and studies it.

“What’s this?” he asks me. 

I smile at Owen. “Yeah, that’s a triceratops horn.”

He looks amazed by it. “Wow. Where did you get it?”

“I dug it.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“How did you find it?” 

“That’s a funny story actually..”

*flashback*

1993-

Alan Grant was working on a dig Montana. He was completely frazzled; it had been two weeks, after all. 2 months without a single trace of any fossil. 

“Alan, there’s nothing at the East side .We checked.” A young woman in khaki shorts tells him. She was nervous. There had to be something, they checked with the geologists. The age of the rocks was right, the type of the rocks was right, so why weren’t they finding anything?

“Then double check,” Alan angrily said to the woman. This was not his first dig. He knew that it could take time to find the fossils. But 2 months! That was a lot of time. 

“We did,” she patiently explained to him. “but there wasn’t a trace of anything. The North side still holds some promise, but the South and West are most likely to be dry.”

A little girl, maybe 7 years old runs towards the woman with a toy tyrannosaurus rex in her hand. 

“Mommy! Daddy! I want to dig.” She looked at Alan with determination in her eyes. Alan instantly melted. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his daughter. His anger instantly vanished when he saw her. 

“Okay darling. Mommy will give you some tools. Just promise me you won’t disturb the other people and you won’t stray far off from the site, okay?” he smiled at her. 

“Okay.” She hugged him and ran off.

“So,” the woman starts. “I’ll give her the tools. Don’t stress out too much.” She gave him a kiss on his forehead.

“Yeah, okay Veronica.” He smiled at her. She smiled back. She left and entered one of the equipment tents. 

“Amber!” she called out, and the little girl ran inside the tent.

“Mommy!” 

“Pick out the one you like.” Veronica told her.

“Okay.” 

After some searching, the pair found a brush and a small shovel for Amber to work with. 

“Now be safe, and don’t wander away, you get me?”

“Yes.” Amber turned and ran out as fast as she came in. She knew the perfect spot to dig. She went to the middle of the kitchen tent, and started to dig. She dug as fast as possible for a 7 year old kid. She is almost about to take a break when she spots it. A part of the skull. 

“AMBER! What are you doing?” Alan storms inside the tent, pretty mad at his daughter.

Amber smiles at him. “Look Daddy! I found something!”

Alan grabs his daughter and forces her down on a chair. “Look darling, we do not mess up inside a tent, okay? Now you know that this equipment is very expensive, and, damn, you tore the groundsheet?” he sighed. “Great, just great. You are in a lot of trouble, missy.” 

However, Amber didn’t show any sign of guilt. Alan was a little confused, Amber was a nice kid. She always accepted her mistakes, and even helped to fix them. But right now, Amber was smiling happily and was very excited about something. Huh.

“What is it, Amber? Do you have something to show me?” Alan asked her.

She nodded her head. “Yes!” Then she pulled at his hand and then showed him her work. It was not very professional, but then again, she was just a kid. Alan peered inside, and what he found made his heart stop. 

Amber had found the fossils. He immediately called Veronica.

“Vera, listen up. We found the fossils. Come to the kitchen tent. You’ll be surprised.”

He then smiled at the girl in front of him and lifted her up. “I am so proud of you darling. How did you know that it was there?”

“I didn’t. I just thought, that if you couldn’t find it anywhere around the camp, then it had to be in the camp!”

“Smart girl.” He set her down. Veronica was very shocked by Amber’s discovery.

“Well maybe that’s what we needed all along. A different perspective. But Alan, this is great and all, but we’re going to have to relocate our camp.”

Alan’s eyes widen in realization. “Oh boy.”

The relocating took only 2 days, with the entire crew helping out, and on the third day, they picked up where Amber left. The excavated bones were of a triceratops. 

*end of flashback*

“You were 7?” Owen looked shocked. 

“Yep. Digging dinosaurs ever since!” I proudly say. Good times, those.

“So how was it like, you know? Your childhood?” he asks me.

“It was- most definitely not normal, but it was nice, I guess, most of it at least.”

“That’s very vague.”

“Well you tell me about your childhood then.” I cross my arms and look at him, eyes locked on firmly.

“Okay,” he starts. “Most of my kid years I spent working in a garage. Working around, messing with the internals of a car, that was real fun, you know?”

“Sounds nice, was your dad a mechanic?”

“Yeah, sort of. He owned the Auto-shop, but he made me sit and watch his employees fix cars. I learnt a lot of things from him; by the time I was 18 I could create a fully functional engine with some spare parts.”

“Wow, that sounds awesome.”

“After school, I joined the Navy. I was almost going to be a commander.”

“So how’d you end up here?” Owen seemed to have a great life. How on earth did he land himself in this mess?

“Long story short, there was an accident. And a Vice Admiral’s daughter.” Of course there was.

“So they kicked you out?” I ask him.

“Nope, more like they hitched a plan with InGen to send me on the most dangerous assignment they had. I bet they’re still hoping I’ll die so I won’t join back when I finish with the raptors.”

“That’s even worse than kicking you out.”

“Yeah, I guess there weren’t a lot of volunteers. Speaking of which, how did you end up here?”

“Oh, uh-,” how do you tell somebody you’re broke without sounding poor?

That’s easy. You tell him, “I was broke and this job pays well, so here I am!”

Not now, inner Amber. Thankfully the doorbell rings, so I jump up before Owen could even process what was happening and dash at the door. I open it to see the pizza delivery guy. In my hurry to get away from awkward conversations, I forgot the money. 

“Hey Owen! Can you please get my bag from the table? I need to pay for the pizza.” I shout.

“You ordered pizza! Awesome. I’ll pay.” He offered. Yay! Free food!

The pizza guy looks at us happily. When Owen comes with his wallet, the boy tells him “You guys are couple goals.”

Both of us look at him as if he suddenly grew triceratops horns on his forehead. 

“No!” Both of us say at the same time. “We are not in a relationship!” Somehow, we say that together too.

The pizza guy hands Owen the bill and runs out, yelling loud, “YES!! I SHIPPED IT FIRST!” We look at him weirdly.

“He’s crazy,” Owen whispers to me.

“I wonder what’s shipping.” I comment and shut the door.


	8. The Secretary

The next week goes on pretty uneventfully. Since we aren’t actually doing anything till the raptors hatched, we have plenty free time on board. So, till Claire gets an assistant, I am supposed to help her out with her work. That was tough. That woman had an impossible job, damn it. She knows each and every crevice of this island so well, I bet that even if she hit her head and lost her memory she’ll still be able to name every attraction at the park. Following her around is tough. I’ve gotta start looking for potential assistants to help her. How does she even remember this stuff?

Owen, on the other hand got assigned to emergency services. I guess he freeloaded till his arm healed. He must get into some real bad stuff I guess, because I once caught some bad bruises on his arms. Must be pretty exerting too, because when he gets home, he literally collapses on the couch, and don’t ask me count the number of times I’ve had to haul his beautiful, muscular-ahem-excuse me. Yeah where was I? Right, I haul up his lazy butt all the way to the top of the stairs, and then he suddenly jerks awake and then locks himself in his room. 

So today, I’m standing outside Claire’s office, waiting for my next round of orders. As I walk up to her doors, I hear some noises inside. And I, being the inquisitive person I am, stick my ear to the door and listen on.

“-Claire, I need you to at least think over it!” a highly agitated male voice says. 

“I’m sorry, Mr. Hoskins,” Claire began in that calm yet firm voice of hers that I envied. “But I will not, sign this unless this is approved by Simon Masrani. The eggs haven’t even hatched yet!”

“All you have to do is bloody sign this paper! He’s going to sign it later! ” he was screeching. I didn’t even need to put my ear to the door by now.

“Get it approved and then we’ll talk.”

I jerk away from the door as I hear footsteps. The door opens and a white man with an evil glint in his eyes walks past me. I sigh in relief. I had a feeling that this man was going to be very troublesome.

“Hey Amber, come in.” Claire calls out to me. I walk in and sit in one of the chairs in front of her desk. I grab an apple from her table and start munching it.

“So,” I say with my mouth full. “Whajrwasgreutbacout?”

“What?” she looks at me in disgust. “I was saving that for later.”

I swallow. “Yeah, sorry. What was that about? Who was that man?”

Claire inhales. “No one you have to worry about, at least not today. Anyways, I have to check on some of the exhibits today-”

“No more paperwork?” I ask her hopefully, taking another bite out of my [Claire’s] apple.

“Of course there is. But less so than usual.”

“Fantastic.” I grab my bag and stand up. “Anything’s better than staying in this stuffy office anyways.”

Claire looks offended. “No offence meant Claire.” I attempt to save myself.

“MY OFFICE IS NOT STUFFY!”

“Whatever you say. Let’s go boss.” I gesture for her to move outside.

She huffs out of the room, with me tailing behind her. I barely manage to walk inside the elevator before it closes. 

“So where are we going?” I ask her.

“We’re going to see the Triceratops Territory and Gallimimus valley.”

“Great.”

“I’m sorry Claire.” I apologize to Claire, not really meaning it. Hopefully, my acting skills were good enough to pass off as a real apology. I did not know she was so protective about her office. 

Anyways, after enduring whiny boy band songs (I had to fix Masrani’s ears), we exit the elevator and sit in Claire’s car. She starts the engine and we start our 30 minute drive from headquarters to the Triceratops Valley. 

“Hey Claire,” I ask. “Do you have any music?”

“Oh yeah.” She opens the glove box in front of me. Wow, she had a lot of CDs. Then she grabs one at random and puts it in the player. 

“Seriously Claire? Taylor Swift?”

“House rules, Amber. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts her cakehole.”

I was stunned. This was the first time I’d ever heard Claire use some kind of informal language. And that too a pop-culture reference? Never thought I’d see the day. Apparently Claire could see that emotion written on my face, so she raises her eyebrows.

“What? I have free Netflix, courtesy of Jurassic World. I use my time well.”

“Nothing.” I nonchalantly say.

After twenty minutes, Claire makes a turn and enters a secluded area. There was not even a trace of a tourist.

“Claire,” I was beginning to get worried now. “Are you sure we’re in the right place?”

“Of course. I am sure.” She said casually and kept on moving.

“Uh, why is there not even a single tourist here then?”

“Oh, right, right. Yeah, the Gyrospheres are still being tested. They don’t open to the public till next week.

“Oh, I see. Wait what-? What are we doing at the gyro- whatever they are?”

“Eh, maybe make a few checks and then ride in one of them.”

“Great,” I say.

Claire reaches to a halt, and then we hop out of the car. She locks it, and then we walk on to the enclosure. I could barely read the letters of the new attraction, these guys knew how to hide stuff.

Initially, the security guy wanted to throw us out immediately, but upon seeing Claire, he decided that that would be a very bad idea. So, doing the smart thing, he lets us in. I could smell the wood polish as soon as I entered. Pretty new place, I guess; but as far as what I could see, it was all operational.

“We’re having over some journalists the day after,” Clare tells me. 

“I see.”

“Hey, Clint!” Claire shouts and a young man in his late-teens runs out of the office and stands straight in front of Claire, even saluting her. I hold back a chuckle.

“Sergeant Clinton Barton reporting for duty, sir!” Claire looks mad at him.

“You know, if you want to join the army, Owen can get you in.” I tell him. When he looks at me, his jaw drops so low I could hear it hit the floor. Not really, but it sure did look like it.

I snap my fingers in front of his face. “Hey buddy, you there with me?”

“YOU’RE AMBER GRANT! THE ONE WHO SURVIVED THE OLD PARK! OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE MY EYES ITS-”

“Okay, boy, breathe.” I tell him.

“YOU’RE AMBER GRANT! THE AMBER GRANT!” he yelled.

The corner of my mouth turned up. It was the first time I was received with such respect. 

“Yeah, course I am.” I smile at him, my posture becoming straighter.

“So why are you here?” he asks me.

“Oh, I’m here to help out Claire. I’ve still got a few days before I actually have to start working on the rap-” Claire glares at me. Oh right, that was supposed to be top secret. “Dinosaurs.” I correct myself. 

Claire clears her throat. “So Clint, I need you start up one of the gyrospheres. I and Amber are going to check the paddock.”

“Sure,” he says, but I don’t really think he understood what Claire told him to do. He had the same expression on his face like the one I had when Jensen Ackles visited our dig. I'm pretty sure did not even close my mouth after he left; I was that star-struck. Sarah still teases me on that. 

I smile at Clint and then ask him, “Hey Clint, can you start one of those gyrospheres for us?”

“Oh yes!” then he runs back into the office, flips a few switches and then signals us to go sit in the glass sphere which had just appeared before us. Claire rolls her eyes.

Interesting, I think to myself. Claire gets into the driver’s seat, and I get into the seat beside her. As soon as I buckle up, the screen in front us displays a video.

“Hey, there. I'm Jimmy Fallon.” I turn to Claire. 

“You hired Jimmy Fallon for this gyroball?”

“Gyrosphere, and yes. We spare no expense.” Claire says in full John Hammond mode. Spare no expense? Yeah right. That’s like saying me and Owen had a kid. Which means never in a million years.

“Welcome aboard the Gyrosphere,” Jimmy Fallon continues to say, while Claire navigates us through the vast, boring paddock. Where were the dinosaurs?

“Hey Claire,” I say.

“What is it?” she asks me, annoyed.

“Where are the-” I am cut short by the rumbling of the ground. Suddenly, our entire sphere shakes. 

“What’s happening?” I ask Claire, worried.

She smiles at me. “Well, you wanted to see the dinosaurs, here are the dinosaurs.” And then I see the first row of the Gallimimus herd, full on heading towards us.

“Wow,” are the only words I could say. 

“And that’s only one of the species we have planned next.” 

“You mean there are more? What else can we see right now?” 

“I guess we can see the ankylosauruses-”

“OH MY GOD!” Yeah, I know I was screaming like a 7-year old on steroids, but I had never seen this species of dinosaurs ever in my life. Okay fine, I have, but fossils don’t count!

Claire smiles, and drives us towards the Ankylosauruses. 

“These guys can be a little violent, so we definitely aren’t opening them to the public until a few year or so. That’s why we’re restricting this entire section.”

“Oh.” I am going to see something no other tourist can until the next 5 years. I feel already like a VIP. 

Claire drives in deeper through the woods and what I see makes me skip a beat.

5 majestic creatures, each one as tall as an elephant, covered all around with thick bony armor and spikes. Literally, they were living tanks. I’m pretty sure that the real ankylosauruses were not like what I saw in front of me, but from what I know from fossils, they aren’t anything like the ones I was seeing in front of me. 

“Impressive huh?” Claire asks me, knowing that look on my face all too well. Of course she does.

“Wow. They are exactly like huge living tanks, aren’t they?

Claire’s expression hardens. “No.”

I wondered if her sour mood had something to do about today morning. However, I value my life, and I decide not to further press the subject. 

“Can we get out and see them?” I ask her eagerly.

Clair faces me with a stone-set expression. “No. Even the handlers themselves have to wear special suits to even go near them. We don’t stand a chance.”

I decide not to let Claire’s bad mood dampen my Ankylosaurus experience. I resume admiring them through the glass of the gyrosphere. After sometime, Claire decides that we spent enough time looking at the dinosaurs, and that we had to get back to the station.

I sigh. Claire turns us around and drives us out of the restricted section. It isn’t long before we reach the station. Clint welcomes us like we’re some superstars who’ve decided to visit one of their fans randomly but the fan is always prepared and in the end it’s the celebrity who’s surprised.

In short, Clint had a pair of flower garlands and lemonade in his hands. I love lemonad!. Once we’re out of the spheres, I give him my most charming smile.

“Thanks a lot Clint! You’re a life saver.” In my opinion, that statement is a bit of an overkill but it seems to work on him because his face turns as red as the apple I was eating in the morning. I’m not going to deny that, it was fun teasing him like this. 

Then Claire caught on and gave me that ‘I-know-what-you’re-doing-and-if-you-don’t-stop-I’m-firing-you’ look. I glare at her. She glares back. I decide to withdraw from this battle. Clint leads us into the small office inside the station, where we continue to sip our lemonades peacefully. However I finish mine pretty quickly.

“Did you like it?” Clint asks me nervously. I beam at him. 

“Of course I did! It’s not every day you see a herd of gallimimus running towards sprinting at top speed.” His expression lowers. Oh. He though I was being sarcastic.

“I’m not being sarcastic.” I clarify for him. His expression returns back to the star struck thing it was.

“I hope you’ll come back again?” he adds, hopefully, his fingers fidgeting with the seat of his chair. Aww, this kid was too adorable to resist. 

“Of course I will.” I smile at him. 

After Claire thanks Clint for the lemonade, she tells me wait there till she brings over the car. Clint barely says a word except ‘goodbye’ when Claire arrives. I decide to toy with his emotions a little more. As we leave, I step forward and kiss him on his cheeks. He turns redder than the time dad ate those 25 chilis on a dare. Clint was in so much shock that he barely even says goodbye to me. 

Claire tries very hard to hold back a laugh. I could see that in her eyes. She relaxed considerably in her time at the station. That’s good news, right?

“Hey Claire, can I pick the music?” I ask her. I was sick and tired of listening to Taylor Swift drone on and on about her break-ups. The only guy I ever dated was in my year at high school, but we never did anything much really. In fact, I was surprised we were steady for 2 years until we finally stopped being together. I got over him faster than you can say ‘Harry Edward Styles.’ 

“Sure.” Claire says, not really into the conversation.

I unlock my phone and connect it to the stereo. Then I play the playlist that Sarah had once created for me as a prank. She transferred all of mom’s 80’s songs and changed every single ringtone to ‘Eye of the Tiger’. But for some reason, I still haven’t changed it.


End file.
